How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac
This wikiHow teaches you how to safely share important documents with others in Windows or macOS. Open the document in Microsoft Word. The quickest way to do this is to double-click its file name.
Method 1 of 4:
Password-protecting a Microsoft Word Document (Windows and Mac)
-
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 1
Open the document in Microsoft Word. The quickest way to do this is to double-click its file name. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 2
Click the File menu. It's at the top-left corner of the window (or in the menu bar on a Mac).[1] -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 3
Click Info. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 4
Click Protect Document. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 5
Click Encrypt with Password. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 6
Create and confirm the document password. Follow the on-screen instructions to type and confirm the password that will protect your document. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 7
Save the file. Click the File menu and select Save to save the new version of your document. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 8
Share the document with others. Now that the file is password protected, you can send it in a variety of ways:- Attach the document to an email message in Gmail, Outlook, or Mac Mail.
- Add the file to a cloud drive like Google Drive, iCloud Drive, or Dropbox.
Method 2 of 4:
Attaching Files to Encrypted Messages in Outlook (Windows and Mac)
-
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 9
Open Outlook on your PC or Mac. It's usually in All Apps area of the Start menu in Windows, and in the Applications folder in macOS. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 10
Click New Email. It's the envelope icon at the top-left corner of the window. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 11
Click the File menu. It's near the top-left corner of the screen.- If you're using Outlook 2010, click the Options menu, then select More Options.
-
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 12
Click Properties. If you're using Outlook 2010, skip to the next step. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 13
Click Security settings. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 14
Check the box next to 'Encrypt message contents and attachments.' -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 15
Click OK. This message will now be encrypted. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 16
Click Close. Now that the encryption settings are set, you can create the message. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 17
Enter a recipient, subject, and message. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 18
Click Attach file. It's the paperclip icon at the top of the new message. This opens your computer's file browser.[2] -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 19
Select the attachment and click Open. This attaches the file to the message. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 20
Click Send. The message will now be delivered to the recipient.
Method 3 of 4:
Encrypting a Document with EPS (Windows)
-
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 21
Navigate to the file you want to encrypt. An easy way to do this is to press ⊞ Win+E to open the File Explorer, then double-click the folder that contains the file. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 22
Right-click the file or folder. A context menu will expand. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 23
Click Properties. It's the last option in the menu. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 24
Click Advanced. It's near the bottom-right corner of the window. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 25
Check the box next to 'Encrypt contents to secure data.' It's the last option on the window. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 26
Click OK. If you selected a folder, a confirmation message will appear. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 27
Select Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 28
Click OK. The selected file or folder is now encrypted. To access the file or folder, you'll have to use your Windows login credentials. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 29
Send the encrypted document.- If you encrypted only one file, you can attach it to an email message. You can't compress the folder and then attach it to an email.
- If you encrypted a folder, upload it to a cloud drive like Google Drive, iCloud Drive, or Dropbox. Once uploaded, use the drive's tools to share the files as you wish.
Method 4 of 4:
Encrypting Documents with Disk Utility (Mac)
-
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 30
Add the file you want to encrypt to a folder. If you're not sure how to do this, see Make a New Folder on a Computer. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 31
Click the Go menu. It's at the top of the screen. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 32
Click Utilities. It's near the bottom of the menu. A new Finder window will open. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 33
Double-click Disk Utility. This opens the Disk Utility app. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 34
Click the File menu. It's in the menu bar at the top-left corner of the screen. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 35
Hover the mouse over New. Another menu will expand. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 36
Click Image from folder. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 37
Select the folder you want to encrypt and click Choose. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 38
Select 128-bit or 256-bit from the 'encryption' drop-down menu. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 39
Create a password. Enter a new password for the folder into the 'Password' box, then again in the 'Verify' box. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 40
Click Choose. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 41
Click Save. -
How to Send Documents Securely on PC or Mac Picture 42
Click Done. The files in the folder are now encrypted. Now you can upload the folder to a cloud drive like Google Drive, iCloud Drive, or Dropbox. Once uploaded, use the drive's tools to share the files as you wish.
3.7 ★ | 3 Vote
You should read it
- How to fix the loss of the New menu in the right-click menu
- Add Copy to folder and Move to folder in the right-click menu
- 2 simple ways to remove SkyDrive Pro option in Windows 10 Right-click Menu
- How to Hide a File or Folder from Search Results in Microsoft Windows
- How to Zip Folder on Windows
- How to copy the file list of folders with the right mouse button
- What is a folder The concept of a file (File) and a folder (Folder) in a computer
- Delete the SkyDrive Pro command in the right-click menu
- What is Take Ownership? How to add Take Ownership to right-click Menu
- How to Make a New Folder on a Computer
- How to delete items from the New Item menu in File Explorer
- How to Create a Computer File
May be interested
How to Change the Windows Taskbar Position
How to Change Your IP Address (Windows)
How to Delete Temporary Files and Delete Prefetch Files from Your Computer
How to Increase Dedicated Video RAM on Windows Laptops with Intel Graphics
How to Quickly Make a Table for WordPad
How to Optimize Your PC Performance